A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret , but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire . It was mainly used in Gothic architecture .
15-445: That Luang is the national symbol and most important religious monument of Laos . Vientiane 's most important Theravada Buddhist festival , "Boun That Luang", is held here for three days during the full moon of the twelfth lunar month (November). The That Luang dates from 1566. It has been destroyed and ransacked and renovated numerous times. The site is sacred as the Lao believe that
30-634: A large number of Lao and Khmer sculptures, including one of Jayavarman VII . [REDACTED] Media related to Pha That Luang, Vientiane at Wikimedia Commons Pinnacle The pinnacle had two purposes: The accounts of Jesus' temptations in Matthew's and Luke's gospels both suggest that the Second Temple in Jerusalem had one or more pinnacles ( Greek : το πτερυγιον του ιερου ): Some have stated that there were no pinnacles in
45-494: A length of 69 metres each, and the stupa was 45 metres high, surrounded by 30 smaller stupas. In 1641, a Dutch envoy of the Dutch East India Company , Gerrit van Wuysthoff , visited Vientiane and was received by King Sourigna Vongsa at the temple, reportedly in a magnificent ceremony. He wrote that he was particularly impressed by the "enormous pyramid...and the top was covered with gold leaf weighing about
60-570: A thousand pounds". The stupa was repeatedly plundered by the Burmese, Siamese, and Chinese. Pha That Luang was destroyed by the Thai invasion in 1828 , which left it heavily damaged and abandoned. It was not until 1900 that the French restored it to its original design, based on detailed drawings from 1867 by the French architect and explorer Louis Delaporte . However, the first attempt to restore it
75-661: The Romanesque style, but conical caps to circular buttresses, with finial terminations, are not uncommon in France at very early periods. Eugène Viollet-le-Duc gives examples from Saint-Germer-de-Fly Abbey and the Basilica of Saint-Remi , and there is one of similar form at the west front of Rochester Cathedral . In the 12th-century Romanesque two examples have been cited, one from Bredon in Worcestershire , and
90-623: The stupa enshrines a relic of Buddha . Monks and laypeople from all over Laos congregate to celebrate the occasion with three days of religious ceremony followed by a week of festivities, day and night. The procession of laypeople begins at Wat Si Muang in the city center and proceeds to That Luang to make offerings to the monks in order to accumulate merit for rebirth into a better life. The religious part concludes as laypeople, carrying incense and candles as offerings, circulate That Luang three times in honor of Buddha. Folk and popular music troupes and drama performances provide entertainment at
105-403: The 3rd century BC. The structure was rebuilt in the 13th century as a Khmer temple, which fell into ruin. In the mid-16th century, King Setthathirat relocated his capital from Luang Prabang to Vientiane and ordered the construction of the temple in 1566. It was constructed about 4 km from the centre of Vientiane, at the end of Pha That Luang Road, and named accordingly. The bases had
120-522: The area. It is generally regarded as the most important national monument in Laos as well as a national symbol. Buddhist missionaries from the Mauryan Empire are believed to have been sent by Emperor Ashoka , including Bury Chan or Praya Chanthabury Pasithisak and five Arahanta monks , who brought a sacred relic (believed to be the breastbone) of Buddha and enshrined it into the stupa in
135-428: The festival. Pha That Luang Pha That Luang ( Lao : ທາດຫຼວງ or ພຣະທາດຫລວງ ; pronounced [pʰā.tʰâːt lǔa̯ŋ] "Great Stupa") is a large, gold-covered Buddhist stupa in the centre of the city of Vientiane , capital of Laos. Since its initial establishment, suggested to be in the 3rd century AD, the stupa has undergone several reconstructions, as recently as the 1930s, due to foreign invasions of
150-638: The other from Cleeve in Gloucestershire . In these the buttresses run up, forming a sort of square turret, and crowned with a pyramidal cap, very much like those of the next period, the Early English . In this and the following styles, mainly in Gothic architecture , the pinnacle seems generally to have had its appropriate uses. It was a weight to counteract the thrust of the vaults , particularly where there were flying buttresses ; it stopped
165-635: The pinnacles were often supported on these shafts alone, and were open below; and in larger work in this and the subsequent periods they frequently form niches and contain statues. About the Transition and during the Decorated Gothic period , the different faces above the angle shafts often finish with gablets. Those of the last-named period are much richer, and are generally decorated with crockets and finials, and sometimes with ball flowers . Very fine groups are found at Beverley Minster and at
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#1732782378755180-594: The rise of the spire of St Mary's, Oxford . Perpendicular pinnacles differ but little from Decorated, except that the crockets and finials are of later character. They are also often set angle-ways, particularly on parapets, and the shafts are panelled. In France pinnacles, like spires, seem to have been in use earlier than in England. There are small pinnacles at the angles of the tower in the Saintes Cathedral . At Roullet-Saint-Estèphe there are pinnacles in
195-497: The second is 157 feet (48 metres) along each side; and the third level is 98 feet (30 metres) along each side. From ground to pinnacle , Pha That Luang is 147.6 feet (45.0 metres) high. Only the pinnacle is covered in real gold; the remainder of the stupa is painted a gold color. The area around Pha That Luang is now gated, to keep out traffic. Previously, visitors could drive around the whole complex. The encircling walls are roughly 279 feet (85 metres) long on each side and contain
210-584: The tendency to slip of the stone copings of the gables , and counterpoised the thrust of spires ; it formed a pier to steady the elegant perforated parapets of later periods; and in France especially served to counterbalance the weight of overhanging corbel tables, huge gargoyles , etc. In the Early English period the small buttresses frequently finished with gablets , and the more important with pinnacles supported with clustered shafts. At this period
225-485: Was unsuccessful, and it had to be redesigned and then reconstructed in the 1930s. During the Franco-Thai War , Pha That Luang was heavily damaged during a Thai air raid. After the end of World War II , it was reconstructed. The architecture of the building includes many references to Lao culture and identity, and so has become a symbol of Lao nationalism. The first level is 223 by 226 feet (68 by 69 metres);
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